Opportunities for kids: New curriculum for German funding in Vorarlberg!

Opportunities for kids: New curriculum for German funding in Vorarlberg!

In Vorarlberg, the innovative pilot project "Learning Room School and Culture" has been in focus since autumn 2024, which is welcome around 40 non-alphabetized children in Bludesch-Gais. These children, who are not yet familiar with the Austrian school system, receive special German support courses. Sports, work and music lessons continue to take place in their main schools, which supports social integrative support. According to a report by vorarlberg.orf.at , those responsible have had consistently positive experiences with the project. Education Councilor Barbara Schöbi-Fink (ÖVP) described it as a great opportunity to relieve the main schools.

A central element of the project forms the measuring instrument for competence analysis, known as Mika-D. With this test, the status of newly enrolled students is determined and their allocation to German support classes or courses are decided. Successful students can return to their main schools. In addition, the Ministry of Education bundles numerous measures to support German funding. In fact, an updated guideline was published that determines German funding for all those pupils who cannot follow the lessons due to inadequate language skills, so the bmbwf .

goal of language support

The German support model, which has been implemented since the 2018/19 school year, aims to enable students to learn the German language quickly and effective in order to promote their integration into class context. The tests by Mika-D take place at the beginning of the school years and should help to support the students appropriately so that school level repetitions can be avoided. German support classes and courses are typically created for one semester and can be extended, depending on the progress of the student.

The Federal Ministry has developed specific curricula for these classes that focus on the development of oral and written language skills. These plans have been binding for all schools since the 2019/20 school year and support the promotion and diagnosis of the language skills of pupils who learn German as a second language.